1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a selective call receiver having a display section, and, more particularly, to a method of displaying reception information on the display section.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, radio selective call receivers called pagers are desirably small and light in consideration of portability. In this respect, a liquid crystal display (LCD) cannot have a large display area. Some schemes are therefore needed to effectively transmit information to users with a limited display screen size.
For example, Japanese Utility-model Unexamined Publication (Kokai) No. 7-43280 discloses a receiver which has an icon display section capable of displaying a plurality of command icons on a display so that information is displayed in the form of icons.
Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication (Kokai) No. 8-294152 describes a multi-function pager. When detecting an incoming call in a mode other than the call standby mode, e.g., in a schedule function mode, this pager informs an incoming call by flickering or blinking an icon corresponding to the type of reception data on a part of the schedule display screen.
While the use of icons can permit effective transmission of information as mentioned above, the prior art displays an icon at a predetermined position on the display screen and thus suffers limited display information. To display an icon and character information in separate areas, a receiver needs an LCD with a larger display screen, which stands in the way of making receivers more compact and lighter.
Further, a selective call receiver with display function is described in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 8-317438. On the color LCD of the radio selective call receiver, the picture information is displayed on the full screen in a color different from the display color of the letter characters on the background.
Furthermore, a selective call receiver and its message display method are described in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 10-023492. According to the conventional message display method, a plurality of routine message icons each indicating objective information are arranged at predetermined positions on screen and one of them is selected and displayed at the corresponding position depending on the icon designation data included in a received signal.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method capable of effectively displaying information in a limited display screen.
It is another object of this invention to provide a selective call receiver capable of effectively displaying plural pieces of received information in a single display screen.
It is a still another object of the present invention to provide a method and a selective call receiver which are capable of displaying received information in a user-friendly display mode.
According to the present invention, there is provided a method for displaying received information in a selective call receiver, which includes a display section, an input section, and a memory having a plurality of predetermined icons stored therein. A notification mode is designated through the input section. When receiving information including icon specifying information and display information, an icon corresponding to the icon specifying information is selected from the plurality of predetermined icons stored in the memory. The selected icon and the display information are displayed on the display section, wherein the selected icon is displayed in a designated notification mode.
The designated notification mode preferably determines a position of the selected icon and further determines a color of the selected icon which is different from that of the display information. The designated notification mode may further determine whether the selected icon blinks.
In the case where the selected icon and the display information overlap each other, the display information may be displayed in a foreground of the selected icon.
Since a selected icon is displayed on the display screen in the designated notification mode, the selected icon and the display information can easily be distinguished from each other. By designating the notification mode, the selected icon can be displayed in a user-designated mode. What is more, two kinds of information can be displayed on a single screen. This can permit information to be effectively displayed in a limited display screen.
Further, it is desirable to give the display information priority over the icon to ensure information transmission. Further, an icon may be displayed in a blinking manner. This further enhances the visual effect to help catch user""s attention.